96 THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. 



specimens progress very slowly for the first three or four 

 years, but afterwards grow away with more rapidity. 



The Ginkgo is generally supposed to be a native of the 

 island of Niphon and other parts of Japan, and also of China ; 

 though M. Siebold states that the Japanese do not think it 

 indigenous, but as having been brought from China at a re- 

 mote period. M. Burge, who accompanied the Russian mission 

 to Pekin, states that he saw a tree with a trunk 40 feet in cir- 

 cumference. It was not introduced into England till 1754, nor 

 into France till 1780, where it was cultivated in the greenhouse 

 in the Jardin des Plants, till 1792. The first female plant in 

 Europe was discovered near Geneva, by Decandolle, in 1814, 

 and cuttings of it distributed, with which the male plants 

 were grafted; but it was not till 1835 that seeds were pro- 

 duced freely, and since then the principal supplies of trees 

 have been grown from seed ; previously, they were raised 

 from layers. The largest tree in Great Britain is growing in 

 London, and was sixty feet high in 1837, at the time Lou- 

 don described it in the Arboretum Britannicum, to which we 

 are indebted for much of our information. 



The Salisburia thrives best in deep sandy loam, on a per- 

 fectly dry subsoil ; it will not flourish in a wet situation, and 

 in our climate is liable to be winter-killed in such a locality. 

 If in a partially sheltered place, so much the better, though 

 it is perfectly hardy. It is most readily propagated by seeds, 

 which grow freely if planted in a box in a frame or green- 

 house, in April or May ; and, after remaining in the boxes 

 one year, they may be transplanted to the open ground. 

 They may also be raised from layers, in the ordinary way. 

 As there is no means of detecting the different sexes in the 

 seedlings, where they are known to exist, one may be easily 

 grafted on the other, in the splice manner, with perfect suc- 

 cess. 



This beautiful tree will for a long time be too scarce to 

 find general introduction into extensive plantations. It may 

 be, however, planted on the lawn, singly, or in groups 

 with other trees. In the former instance, its straight trunk 

 and spiry top, as well as its singular and fern-like foliage, will 



